


Lost Forest

by theScrap_Witch



Series: Quests and Questions [3]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Forest Haven (Wind Waker), Gen, Sad, does Time have enough trauma?, timeline split talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25700554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theScrap_Witch/pseuds/theScrap_Witch
Summary: “With every meeting there is a parting,” murmured Time.“Ah,” said the forest, “But that does not mean we won’t meet again.”The words - that voice -Time scrambled to his feet.The tallest tree in the centre of the island now had a face. Nose and mouth, eyes and heavy brow, all made from thick bark. Time left his spot, left the others safe in their dreams, and walked onto a giant lily-pad.“I remember you,” said the forest god. “I remember a boy like you, dressed in green, back when I was only a sprout. You helped kill the darkness that infected the old me, didn’t you? You saved me.”“Yes.” The lily-pad Time was on rose from the ground, lifted into the air by a thick root. It brought Time up so that he was eye level with the Great Deku Tree.
Series: Quests and Questions [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864564
Comments: 32
Kudos: 252





	Lost Forest

**Author's Note:**

> The Zelda Encyclopedia states that the Great Deku Sprout from Ocarina of Time (adult timeline) grows into the Great Deku Tree in Wind Waker, so I wondered what a conversation between him and Time would be like. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Fate was cruel, so Time wasn’t surprised that it would world-shifted them all into the middle of the ocean. 

Again.

They landed in a splash, and Time caught a glimpse of the world - endless blue - before he started to sink. The shock of cold saltwater scrambled Time’s brain. He couldn't remember anything. _What was happening? Others? What?_ Instinct took over. Made him kick, forcing his head back to the surface so he could gasp for air. 

Then three words of righteous fury broke through the swirl of confusion. 

**“WHAT THE FUCK?”**

Legend. 

Everything snapped back into focus. _Danger - drowning - the boys!_

Time tried to look for them, but the weight of his armour fought against him. It threatened to drag him down and drown him. He could barely keep his head above the surface, his lungs filling with more water than air. Strong arms wrapped around his middle and pulled him up. 

“I’ve got you,” said Twilight, his natural strength and stubborn determination keeping them both afloat. Pride filled the part of Time’s heart not already crowded with panic. 

“Everyone else okay?” yelled Time. Now he could see the others, all barely keeping their heads above water. Wild and Four were on either side of Warriors. Legend, still swearing, had an arm tight on Hyrule. And Wind, who swam as well as a Zora, was helping Sky. 

“I’ll be better once we’re out of this fucking ocean,” snapped Legend. Hyrule clung to him, his eyes flickering nervously at the water, clearly afraid of what could be lurking beneath. 

“Does anyone see a nearby boat?” asked Four, “Or an island?”

“There’s land straight ahead,” said Warriors.

Time followed Warrior’s gaze, saw the scrap of land and what looked like the shadow of a large mountain, wrapped in fog. 

“Wind?” asked Time. This had to be the sailor’s Hyrule. No other world had this much water. 

“It looks familiar,” said Wind, squinting. “I think it’s safe?”

Safe or not, it would be better than drowning in the middle of the sea. “Start swimming,” ordered Time. 

***

Somehow, they managed to reach the island, drenched and exhausted and all alive. 

Twilight collapsed the moment they got to the shore. Time caught him before the boy could hit the sand. 

“Pup?”

“I’m…fine.” Twilight could barely keep his eyes open. “Cub? Others?”

“All here,” said Time. He had the sudden urge to ruffle the boy’s hair. “Take a minute to catch your breath.” Time’s own muscles were screaming. He ignored the pain, ignored his body’s demand for rest, and instead studied the boys. 

Warriors was wringing seawater out of his scarf. Sky was laying face down in the sand, looking ready to take a nap right then and there. Wild had moved to Twilight’s side, anxiously scanning through his slate-device for something that could help. Four was staring out at the endless ocean, muttering something to himself. Hyrule knelt in the sand, staring hard at his hands as they slowly stopped shaking. 

And Legend was coughing up a bucket’s worth of seawater in-between complaints and curses. “Wind, I - _cough_ \- hate - _cough_ \- your - _cough_ \- Hyrule.”

Privately, Time agreed with Legend. Wind’s Hyrule was too much like a water temple for him to ever be comfortable visiting. Part of him kept looking for hidden switches. 

“At least we still have all our weapons,” said Four. 

“And our clothes,” added Wild.

Warriors turned to Wild, very concerned. “Why would we not have our clothes?”

“Well, there was this one shrine…”

Time tuned out Wild’s story and turned to focus on Wind and the island.

Unlike everyone else, the swim had energized the boy. He stood ahead of them all, eyes wide as he stared around the island, a delighted smile growing across his face. Now that they were out of immediate danger, Time could see that what he’d thought was a mountain was actually an enormous dead tree, its trunk taller than a castle wall. To the left was a small waterfall. No obvious dangers or monsters, but no safe place to make camp either. 

“Do you know where we are?” asked Hyrule.

“Yes!” Wind’s eyes were bright. “Forest Haven!”

“Is it safe here?” asked Twilight. All of them had dealt with dangerous forests before, except Wind. He’d been amazed at all the trees back in Wild’s Hyrule, calling it a ‘sea of green’. 

“Very safe,” said Wind. “I have friends here.”

“More pirates?” asked Four. 

Wind’s smile turned a little sad. “No pirates this time,” he said, no doubt missing a certain pirate captain. 

Music floated on the air, a cheerful melody, drifting from one of the waterfalls. It did not sound like wind whistling through the rocks, but instead like the strings of a violin. 

“Makar!” Wind waved at the others. “Follow me!” 

“Can’t we rest here for a bit first?” pleaded Sky.

But Wind had already rushed through the curtain of water, leaving Time and the others no choice but to hurry after him. 

***

Inside the waterfall was a tunnel made from the roots of the dead tree. Magic lanterns filled it with soft, warm light. The music had stopped, replaced by chatter. 

Wind was talking to a small figure. It looked like a statue, like something Sky could carve out of wood. A leaf mask was worn over its face, with black cut-outs for its eyes and mouth. It held a musical instrument - a cello? - also made from leaves and twigs. It reminded Time of something the Kokiri would have used. 

“Its a korok!” exclaimed Wild. 

Time remembered the leaf mask Wild had shown them around the campfire. _Another type of forest spirit,_ he thought. That made him smile. Time had a soft spot in his heart for friendly forest spirits.

Neither Wind or the korok seemed to hear Wild, nor did they notice that there were now eight other people surrounding them. They talked fast, both caught up in the joy of seeing each other again. 

“Are the new tress growing okay?”

“Yes! Yes! Have you found the new land yet?”

“Not yet. But we will!”

“I hope it has lots of trees.”

“Wind?” interrupted Time,“Are you going to introduce us?”

“Oh! Right.” Wind gestured to the small creature. “This is my friend, Makar. He’s a korok and a great musician and he helped me stop Ganon.”

“I’m the Wind Sage,” said Makar, both shy and proud. 

“Makar, these are my…” Wind frowned, trying to find the right words. “Um…”

“More friends?” suggested Makar.

“Yes!” Wind pointed to each of them. “This is Twilight, Wild, Warriors, Hyrule, Legend, Sky, Four, and Time.”

Makar looked at each of them. “They’re like you,” said the korok. “I can feel the triforce - or the courage part of it. It shimmers on all of your souls.” For a moment, he was more than just a small forest spirit. He was the air and threads of power that helped hold the world together. 

“How do you know that?” asked Hyrule, wariness creeping into his voice. 

“I don’t know,” said Makar with a shrug. Now he was just a korok again, innocent and bright. “Sage thing? It doesn’t matter. Any friends of Link are friends of mine, which means you are all my friends, and since you are all Link and you have friends all those friends are now my friends too and…” His whole body shook with excitement. “Oh, wow. I have so many friends now.”

Legend rolled his eyes. “Congratulations.”

“You should come play with us!” Makar bounced up and down. “Come inside! Come play!”

***

Makar lead them deeper into the island, through the waterfall tunnel and inside the trunk of the dead tree. Inside was a peaceful little forest, with bushes and flowers and soft grass. A tiny oasis of green, a stark contrast to the almost unending, harsh blue sea. It reminded Time of his house years - lifetimes - ago back in Kokiri Forest. 

At the centre of the forest stood the largest tree, though still thin and scraggly compared to all of the ones Time had grown up with in his Hyrule. It could have been the Great Deku Tree, but this one was too skinny, too scraggly for a great god of the forest. Or maybe that was just his memories, the eyes of a child magnifying those he loved. It said nothing to the heroes when they entered, but plenty of other koroks popped out of their hiding places, eager to play. The heroes set up camp there, since it was already afternoon and Time doubted any of them wanted to face the Great Sea anytime soon. 

Well, some of them set up camp. Wind and a bunch of the others spent the afternoon playing with the koroks. Hide and seek, tag, arranging rocks in circles and spiral patterns. 

“They’re like a bunch of little kids,” said Warriors. 

“They are kids,” said Twilight. 

Time leaned back against the tree-trunk wall, watching them all. He’d played those sorts of games with Saria and the other Kokiri as a child. He’d beat Mido at hide and seek every time, and every time Mido would accuse him of cheating. _“Your fairy gave you away,”_ Saria would say, trying to keep the peace. _“At least I have a fairy!”_ Mido would shout back. Odd that he would miss even Mido’s teasing.

“Ya ha!” shouted Wild, breaking Time out of his memories. “You found me!”

Twilight managed to pull Wild away from the games long enough to cook dinner. The koroks sat with them, some of them munching on small spoonfuls of food. Then, after dinner had been gobbled down, more games. This time, Warriors and Twilight were pulled into the activities. Twilight gave some of them piggyback rides, while Warriors used his scarf as a jumprope. 

A peaceful way to end the day. Time knew better than to waste such a gift. A part of him wished he could keep the boys here, safe and secure and happy, while he alone dealt with whatever darkness dragged them from their homes. An impossible wish. He could already hear eight very loud arguments against such an idea, so he kept quiet. This afternoon of gentle happiness would have to be enough. 

Something bright flickered beneath the leaves, catching his attention. _She could not be here,_ he told himself. It was just his imagination. Just his heart, wishing. Remembering. 

He searched the treetop again. Just in case.

Later that night, when the forest was lit only by fireflies, Time took first watch. The others were all exhausted, both from their harrowing swim and a full afternoon of playtime. Even the koroks had fallen asleep, snuggling close to the different heroes. It was not long before they all had drifted off into pleasant dreams and Time was left alone to breath in the green and quiet air. He had not felt so safe since he was nine and a tiny blue fairy flew through his bedroom window. 

He didn’t want the feeling to end. 

“With every meeting there is a parting,” murmured Time.

“Ah,” said the forest, “But that does not mean we won’t meet again.”

The words - _that voice_ \- 

Time scrambled to his feet. 

The tallest tree in the centre of the island now had a face. Nose and mouth, eyes and heavy brow, all made from thick bark. Time left his spot, left the others safe in their dreams, and walked onto a giant lily-pad.

“I remember you,” said the forest god. “I remember a boy like you, dressed in green, back when I was only a sprout. You helped kill the darkness that infected the old me, didn’t you? You saved me.”

“Yes.” The lily-pad Time was on rose from the ground, lifted into the air by a thick root. It brought Time up so that he was eye level with the Great Deku Tree.

“Hello again, Link,” said, the forest god, his bark face curving into a wide smile. For a moment, Time was nine again, Navi perched on his shoulder, a tiny Kokiri blade in his hands. “Look at how much we’ve both grown since our last meeting.”

Time smiled. What had once been a short, fat sprout was now a proud - if skinny - tree, taller than a tower. “It has been a long time.”

“Very long,” said the Great Deku Tree. “I had given up hope of ever seeing you again. And while I am happy to have been proven wrong, I must ask, why are you here now?”

“There is a darkness in Hyrule,” explained Time. “A new evil slithering from one world to the next.” He gestured to his sleeping companions on the ground below. “It has pulled us together, dragging us across time and space.”

“You do not know what this evil is, then?”

“No.” Time’s eyes went hard. “But we will stop it.”

“I am glad to see you have not yet lost your hero’s spirit.”

Time remembered his rough awakening in another Hyrule, the jarring introduction to a whole new, unwanted adventure. “Hylia has not given me much of a choice.”

“Is that the only reason you fight now? Out of necessity?”

 _Yes,_ Time nearly said, but then he caught glimpse of the eight sleepers below. “No,” he admitted. “I fight for more than just that.” Now it was Time’s turn for a question. “Why are you here?”

“Me?”

“Yes. You should be in Kokiri Forest, or the Lost Woods. How did you get moved to the middle of the ocean?”

“I did not move,” said the Great Deku Tree. “The water came to me.”

All the happiness Time had felt at seeing his old friend again broke, shattered by this sudden, terrible realization. 

_Oh._ _Oh, no._

How could he have been so blind? 

This island was - 

\- was - 

_Oh, Hylia, no wonder it felt so familiar._

“This can’t be Kokiri Forest,” said Time. “It can’t be.”

“Long ago it was,” said the Great Deku Tree. Sorrow coated each word. “Long ago, in an age now only you and I remember.”

Time shook his head. That endless ocean he’d swam in had devoured his childhood home. The homes of his friends, the roots and small trees he’d played in as a carefree child. All of it, drowned. “What happened?” he asked, squeezing his eyes tight to force back tears. 

“There was a flood,” said the Great Deku Tree.

Wind had said the same thing, back when Hyrule had asked the sailor about his home. _‘Most of its water, ‘cause the world flooded. I don’t know why. That was, like, hundreds of years before me.’_

“And the Kokiri?” Time forced the question out, dreading the answer. “Are they buried beneath all of that water too?”

“Some. Many of my children were lost when the great flood happened. Those that survived took on a new form.”

“The koroks.” Time thought of the tiny wooden forms, cuddling with the other heroes. _I would not know any of them,_ he told himself. _The Kokiri were ageless, but not immortal. These ones are not the same souls as the ones I grew up with._

“Why?” asked Time. His voice nearly broke, and he had to take in a long, deep breath before he could talk again. “Why did this happen?”

“Why do you care?”

The words hit Time like a Goron stone-sword to the chest. “Why? How could you ask - how could I not care? This was my home!”

“Then why did you do nothing to defend it?” Anger twisted tightly around the Great Deku Tree’s sorrow, like ivy strangling a branch. “You left, and the world was left defenceless when Ganon came back.”

Time shook his head. He thought of Skull Kid and Majora and of one fiercely terrible mask hidden at the bottom of his bag. “I was sent back by Zelda. The world - that timeline - was supposed to be safe. I was returned to the past and fought a new evil there.”

“And left us vulnerable to an old evil here,” said the Great Deku Tree. “You fractured history with your choices. You do not - cannot - know how many lives were affected because of what you did.”

“I was nine,” hissed Time, his own temper breaking. “I just wanted to return home.”

( _an old, unwanted memory arose in his mind. A nine year old boy dressed in green, wandering around a forest, calling out over and over again for a fairy, for a familiar face, for a friend. For his Kokiri family, who would not - could not? - show him the way back to their village_ ) 

“You tried to return to a place no longer welcome to you,” chided the Great Deku Tree. Time had never heard him so angry. He’d never thought the forest god capable of anger. “You clung to an idea of home, and so left the world that needed you to fend for itself, not realizing that you could not go back to what once was. You abandoned us to the future, to our fate. Just as…” and here, the Great Deku Tree’s voice turned soft, all the sudden anger disappearing. “Just as my previous self abandoned you to yours.” 

“So, you sent another child off on an adventure.” Time’s temper only grew, colder and colder, each word bitter and painful on his tongue. 

“The Hero of Wind was already in the middle of his quest when I met him. The evil that you failed to stop - “ The Great Deku Tree shook, its leaves rusty as it brushed away the words. “I blamed you, a little, for all of this. For the flood. For the loss of old things that do not matter any more. Forgive me, I was not being fair. I should know better than to cling to old wounds.” 

“I don’t know if I can forgive you,” said Time. He did not feel like a child any more. He felt old, ancient and tired. Anger became bitterness, a familiar thorn he carried in his heart. “I don’t know if I can ever forgive any of you - gods, magic swords, higher powers. I will fight for Hyrule, but I do not think I can ever truly forgive what it took from me.” He ran a hand down the blue and red marks on his face. “What it did to me.”

The Great Deku Tree sighed. “We have both grown, Link, but what exactly have we grown into?” 

Gently, the lily-pad lowered back to the ground, dropping Time next to the other heroes. 

“Wait - “

“You are not a child of the forest. But you were a child in my forest, and I loved you all the same. Go rest, Hero of Time.” It was like a door being shut in his face. It was like being cast out from Kokiri Forest all over again. “Sleep.”

Time tried to argue, but there was a sweetness in the air, thick like medicine. He couldn’t fight against the pressure suddenly heavy on his limbs. “Not…fair…” Time managed to mumble as his eyes closed.

“Sleep,” the Great Deku Tree ordered again. “I will guard you all tonight.”

***

He dreamt of a tiny blue fairy, coming out from her hiding spot beneath the Deku Tree’s leaves. She was soft and warm, bright like a piece of starlight. Her wings tickled against his cheek as she whispered into his ear. 

_‘Hey, listen,’ she says, ‘Link. - ‘_

The rest of the words were lost. When he woke the next morning, all memory of the conversation is gone. The great tree is silent. 


End file.
